Connor Foppe sat on a bench of a musty locker room in the Mountain View Ice Arena and threw on his hockey pads, helmet and left glove.
A teammate helped him get his Vancouver Rangers jersey over his head, and each arm through the sleeves. As the teenagers laughed and joked around before heading out onto the ice, Foppe paused as he motioned to put on his right glove, and nervously looked up at his mom.
“Can you get it on?” his mom, Leslie Foppe, asked.
“No,” he said, shaking his head.
It was the only moment Wednesday night when Connor Foppe wasn’t smiling ear-to-ear.
After a minute and a half of effort, his fingers slid into the glove. On this night, Foppe wasn’t going to let anything stop him from getting on the ice.
The 16-year-old is still on a long journey back from the debilitating sudden stroke he suffered after a family ski trip in March that kept the smiley, upbeat teenager hospitalized for 66 days, forcing him to relearn English, and regain the basic use of his entire right side.
But he is fighting back.
And on Wednesday night, he was the center of attention after his story caught the eye of U.S. Paralympian sled hockey gold medalist Josh Sweeney.
Sweeney, a former U.S. military scout sniper and Purple Heart recipient-turned Paralympic gold medalist, corralled his Portland-based sled hockey team and welcomed Connor and his cohorts onto the ice for a scrimmage on Wednesday — in sleds.
Sweeney’s team, which he equates to a “beer league” bunch, went head-to-head with the Rangers youth team, which has players ranging in age from 15-18.
“It means a lot,” Connor said. “And most of my team is here. It means a lot to me. It’s pretty cool.”
But his recovery is far from over. And it was a long, trying road that led him to be able to get in the sled Wednesday night.
* * *
Last March, Connor suffered a hard hit during a hockey tournament with the Vancouver Junior Rangers. He didn’t think much of it, but his shoulder started acting up the following week when the family was on a spring break ski trip at Mt. Bachelor.
As the week wore on, he became fatigued, lost his appetite and developed a headache.
After returning home from the weeklong trip, Connor slept for 20-consecutive hours. Leslie, sensing something was wrong, checked on him midday the next day and found him suffering a stroke, wide-eyed and paralyzed.
“His whole face was completely drooped, and I just knew,” she said.
An ambulance rushed him to one hospital, where they discovered a blood clot, but couldn’t operate on him.
“He was completely paralyzed,” Leslie said. “He couldn’t speak. His right eye couldn’t track. He knew what you were saying but he couldn’t retrieve information and shoot it back out.”
He was transferred to Randall Children’s Hospital where he underwent surgery to remove the clot.
Doctors later told the Foppes that the hockey hit could have caused the clot. For many, the clot should have dissolved on its own.
But tests revealed that Connor had a patent foramen ovale, which is a hole in his heart that is meant to close after birth — for Connor it did not. Doctors told his parents that it was an avenue for the clot to travel to his brain, causing the stroke.
In August, he underwent a separate operation to close the hole.
But they are still grappling with the realities of recovery from a traumatic brain injury. Connor has gaps in his verbal skills that are still being filled. He’s being re-taught words he knew beforehand. He returned to King’s Way Christian in September, the school he’s attended his since grade school, but was removed to help him cope with a heavy schedule of therapy appointments. Meanwhile he’s being homeschooled.
“Where he is now, it’s amazing,” Leslie said.
Hospitals are legally required to provide educators for children with long-term stays. That way Connor was able to finish most of his credits from his freshman year at King’s Way.
As he regains his strength, he’s able to do more physically, like swing a golf club and get back onto the ice. And through it all, he’s brought jokes, smiles and, doctors tell his mom, an impressive work ethic.
“Connor has an incredible ability to take whatever comes at him and smile through it,” Leslie, a figure skating instructor and former professional figure skater, said. “When the therapist would ask him about his goal, he’d say, ‘to walk out of here and say thanks for the help, I’m not coming back.’ ”
* * *
Connor is a 16-year-old who likes hockey, wake-surfing, golf and lacrosse (golf has been the easiest to pick up post-stroke). He carries an infectious smile and knows how to make others laugh. A month ago, he stepped back onto the ice for the first time since the stroke, and immediately fell.
Foppe was frustrated. He still didn’t have the trust in his arm and leg he did.
“(It) was garbage,” he said. “Then as I got on more and more, it began to be easier.”
Sweeney could relate. On top of losing both his legs, he also suffered nerve damage in his right hand.
Sweeney told Connor that hockey was the perfect therapy to get his hand strength back. That motivated Connor.
Sled hockey served as a way to get back on the ice sooner. But the sport, which is one of the most popular in the Paralympics, presents its own physical challenges, like reliance on upper body strength.
But Sweeney helped Connor build up enough trust in himself physically to give it a shot.
“His words helped a lot,” Connor said.
He spent most of the time on the ice Wednesday laughing with his fellow teammates and knocking them off of their sleds.
After two major surgeries and a continuous physical therapy, he is slowly working to regain the muscle functions and strength of his right arm and leg.
That’s how he caught the attention of Sweeney.
Sweeney grew up in Arizona and played hockey in high school. He then went onto serve in the military for six years, and went on two tours of duty. In October 2009 while in Afghanistan, a month into his second deployment, he stepped on an improvised explosive device. It cost him both his legs.
During his rehabilitation, he picked up sled hockey and found a group of competitive and skilled kindred spirits on the ice. That group qualified for the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi and won gold.
After moving to Oregon with his wife, Sweeney worked with the NHL Players Association and got 15 sleds to bring the area its first sled hockey team. Then he got involved in the local hockey scene, and wound up coaching the Junior Winterhawks high school-aged team. That’s where heard about Connor’s story.
When Connor was on the ice with his teammates, he was never without a smile, and took every opportunity he could to use his good arm to push a friend out of his sled.
His goal is to get back where he was before the stroke physically. He can already swing a golf club, and he hopes to be back training by the summer to be ready before next season in September.
For now, he cherishes the time shared with all who came out to support him.
“It was fun having my team come,” he said. “It was just fun. Being able to horse around with them, mess around with them. It feels really good (to be back on the ice).”
